Sri Lankan Govt Tyre Factory Reaches End of Line

The bicycle tyre manufacturing facility in the Sri Lankan town of Mawanella operated by the Sri Lanka Rubber Manufacturing and Export Corporation, a body owned and controlled by the nation’s Ministry of Plantation Industries, has ended production and remains closed. Local media reports indicate that plant machinery is in a state of decline and the factory buildings have become ‘dilapidated.’

The plant was established in 1974 under a United Nations Development programme at a cost of £17 million. However the machinery in use was said to be sub-standard, resulting in the poor performance of the company’s tyres in the marketplace.

Only last August company chairman R.B. Herath expressed an intention to expand operations at the Mawanella site, with a new tyre plant employing 1,000 people in apparently in the pipeline plus an expansion of rubber latex production from 75 to 100 tonnes per month.

The factory now reportedly hopes to revive its fortunes through cooperation with a private company.